Boehner walks fine line on Ryan

ST. LOUIS — Speaker John Boehner just had a big wrench thrown into his massive summer fundraising tour: He now has to sell the nation on Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

But at the same time, Boehner has to work as furiously to boost House Republicans all over the country, especially in districts where the Ryan vision on entitlements isn’t exactly the preferred party message.

During a day-long swing through the St. Louis metropolitan area, Boehner said little about the budget-cutting bravado of the Ryan budget, and he didn’t delve into specifics about Ryan’s controversial plans to reshape Medicare and Medicaid.

Instead, Boehner called Ryan a “pretty bold choice” – the understatement of the century, if you ask some Republicans. And hailed Ryan as a “probably one of the real experts on pro-growth economic policies that we need.”

“You know, Mitt Romney probably could’ve kept going down the path he was on, could’ve taken the safer choice,” Boehner said during a Monday fundraiser in Fairview Heights, Ill. “But I think he wanted to show Republicans and independents all across the country, and frankly for that matter show President [Barack] Obama, that we are playing offense because there’s nobody who knows more about the debt crisis we’re about to face than Paul Ryan.”

Boehner and Ryan have a long history that includes much mutual admiration, yet some tensions as well. As a college student in Ohio in the early 1990s, Ryan volunteered for Boehner’s first House campaign. The pair enjoyed a rise to power in 2010 — Boehner as speaker, and Ryan who is seen by many as the conservative budget visionary.

There have also been clashes. The National Republican Congressional Committee, over which Boehner has much control, has been skeptical of the Ryan budget. In 2011, Boehner himself said Ryan’s carefully crafted – but controversial – budget was “an idea that’s certainly worthy of consideration,” adding that he’s “not wedded to one single idea.” Boehner has supported Ryan’s effort, and House Republicans have overwhelmingly passed the budget twice.

During a 47-event swing through the country, Boehner’s St. Louis visit gives clues to how he will sell Ryan — and raise gobs of cash for the GOP — in 13 states before the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

In the weeks leading up to Boehner’s campaign swing, aides said Republicans were strongly positioned to snatch seats from Democrats in November. That was before Ryan was chosen. Now, Boehner is trying to use Ryan’s selection as further evidence that the party is poised to make gains by snatching Democratic seats.